Living & studying in Lappeenranta - Finland

Up North!

For quite some time, foreign journalists have been flocking to Finland to find out just what it is that makes the world's best education system tick. One of them asked a Finnish official about the number of children who do not complete school in her city. The official replied, "I can tell you their names if you want."

This "leave-no-student-behind" attitude penetrates the entire field of education from the first day of kindergarten to the moment you get your Ph.D. In fact, Finland's commitment to education is so exceptional it became the key reason why the American magazine Newsweek declared Finland "the Best Country in the World" in its 2010 study.

Newsweek's broad-spanning study examined living conditions in 100 countries around the world. Finland did not come out on top in any other department besides education, but gave a strong performance in health care, quality of life, economic dynamism, and political environment. (Finland came in fourth in quality of life.) In the overall ranking, the runners-up behind Finland were Switzerland and Sweden; the United States narrowly missed the TOP 10 (placing 11th).

And this, too: OECD discovered Finland to be the second Happiest Place on Earth (right behind Denmark, edging the Netherlands).

All these fireworks, however, do not mean that Finland is perfect. Actually, far from it, we say.